14 DAY TRIAL // Mountain View-based software giant Google is gearing up for the release of a new version of its mobile operating system, Android.
Supposedly featuring version number 5.0, the new platform release is also said to arrive on devices with the codename of Jelly Bean attached to it. It is expected to land sometime in the third quarter of the year.
The platform was somehow touted at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, yet Google hasn’t provided an official confirmation on its arrival, nor on the name under which it will be released.
Rumor has it that the upcoming platform release will build upon the enhancements that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich brought to the ecosystem and that it would also deliver further unity.
Initially designed for mobile phones, Android became very popular among tablet makers fast, and Google released a specific platform iteration just for that.
Just before ICS, Google had two OS flavors available for manufacturers interested in coming up with devices running under Android, one for smartphones, Gingerbread, and another one for tablet PCs, namely Honeycomb.
Android 4.0 was meant to correct that, being available for both smartphones and tablet PCs, yet vendors came up mainly with handsets powered by it. Google is allegedly preparing an Android 4.1 OS version to better support tablets.
At the moment, the Internet giant is working with partners for the launch of new smartphones running under Ice Cream Sandwich, to help the platform gain some more share in the Android ecosystem. OS upgrades are also prepared to help the cause.
As for Android 5.0 Jelly Bean, its arrival should fit into Google’s plans to deliver one major OS upgrade each year for the OS. If DigiTimes' sources are right, however, Jelly Bean will arrive one quarter earlier than Ice Cream Sandwich.
Hopefully, the upcoming platform release will not further affect the health of the Android ecosystem, which is already heavily fragmented, as the latest data coming from Google themselves show.